Planning on dropping Health Insurance. Change my mind.

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

I think he is suggesting that with your skills, you are under-employed. Should be making enough money that you wouldn't be spending time deciding if $186/month is affordable.

So far from what I have seen, I can’t make better money in the trades, I would have to take a entry level position because, even know I know how to install or diagnose HVAC/R equipment, and do on the side, I would be far from their lead installer or technician out of the gate.

My job now is mainly indoors in a 280k sq ft building, I don’t have to climb in attics or crawl in crawl spaces like I used to. Lol.

Idk what the answer is, I thought about looking for another job but fear I’ll get stuck in one I hate. I don’t like to jump around on jobs, looks bad on the resume.

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

Agreed, a 401K loan is a last ditch answer to a financial problem. Eat the stale corn flakes and egg salad sandwiches at every meal first. At least the interest is going back to you, rather than to a loan company.

Is a 401k loan at 6.5% worse than a personal loan at 11%?

We are talking only a couple years at most, I’m trying to swing it and pay it off sooner. My goal is to pay everything off, paying out the least amount of interest possible.

 

[kenmac]

Think I would have to keep the health insurance, and not borrowed from the 401K.
While you may be paying yourself 6.5%, you should have been making more than that in the market.

Most 401K loans also have fees associated with them as well. If that's the case, you won't make that full 6.5% paying yourself back

 

[bruceha2000]

Is a 401k loan at 6.5% worse than a personal loan at 11%?

We are talking only a couple years at most, I’m trying to swing it and pay it off sooner. My goal is to pay everything off, paying out the least amount of interest possible.

No of course not! 11% is super bad and paying it to someone else is a total loss. OK, not as bad as credit card rates, they are usury. Just that some of us would do almost anything to NOT borrow money for anything other than a home and maybe a vehicle needed to get to work for example. For everything else you save up and pay cash. I have never paid interest on a credit card. If I don't KNOW that I will be able to pay for something when the bill comes, I don't buy it. CCs are just a convenience.

If 8% is what you can swing, good for you. SO many people think they will start saving for retirement "later". Only a dollar saved when you are 20 is worth way more when you are 50 than a dollar you save when you are 50. An awful lot of people have very little saved for retirement even when they are nearing that age. I personally wouldn't want to live on SS.

I guess you can choose not to take SS once you are eligible but remember it is money taken from you and your employers for current recipients with the understanding that when you are of age, the same will be happening with current workers.

And I hear you on not wanting to crawl in small spaces to do plumbing, HVAC or electrical work. Of course you are less than half my age, probably more flexible

And, apparently, now the "career" idea where one works for the same company for their working lives, or even holds the same type job for that period is over. I heard an interview recently where someone in an HR position said he doesn't even look at how often a person changed jobs anymore. Though, I have to believe if one has had 12 jobs in 6 years, that would be suspect.

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

No of course not! 11% is super bad and paying it to someone else is a total loss. OK, not as bad as credit card rates, they are usury. Just that some of us would do almost anything to NOT borrow money for anything other than a home and maybe a vehicle needed to get to work for example. For everything else you save up and pay cash. I have never paid interest on a credit card. If I don't KNOW that I will be able to pay for something when the bill comes, I don't buy it. CCs are just a convenience.

If 8% is what you can swing, good for you. SO many people think they will start saving for retirement "later". Only a dollar saved when you are 20 is worth way more when you are 50 than a dollar you save when you are 50. An awful lot of people have very little saved for retirement even when they are nearing that age. I personally wouldn't want to live on SS.

I guess you can choose not to take SS once you are eligible but remember it is money taken from you and your employers for current recipients with the understanding that when you are of age, the same will be happening with current workers.

And I hear you on not wanting to crawl in small spaces to do plumbing, HVAC or electrical work. Of course you are less than half my age, probably more flexible

And, apparently, now the "career" idea where one works for the same company for their working lives, or even holds the same type job for that period is over. I heard an interview recently where someone in an HR position said he doesn't even look at how often a person changed jobs anymore. Though, I have to believe if one has had 12 jobs in 6 years, that would be suspect.

I don’t regret doing things the way I did, if it wasn’t for my credit score and CC’s I would have been much later buying my house, tractor and vehicles I have had and own. Every car, truck or tractor I have owned in the last 4 years I have used and either broke even or majority made money off of. My house was bought when real-estate was on the rise, I bought it privately and it’s worth 50k more now than I paid for it not including what I put in it with payments. Even with the interest paid, I’m still way ahead on the deals I have made.

I was able to bid on HVAC jobs (buy equipment with CC’s), got the jobs and made decent money which I rolled into something else.

Thanks to CC’s I have been able to buy things when the deal was right vs when I had the money. I also like running numbers, I know exactly what I have in stuff and what it’s worth.

Without proper management and control CC’s can be serious trouble for people.

 

[gimmodog]

IF, is the key word there.

I can say the same thing about people saving for retirement, I have to pay social security and taxes to cover the folks who didn稚 plan for retirement and find themselves at the age for retirement but no money saved up.

I will pay Society way more then I will take, don稚 worry about that. I have already paid into social security since the age of 17, 11 years now, I have always paid my taxes on time and have always been employed, I have another 30-40 years to pay into social security. When I知 that age I plan to be financially independent, I won稚 need SS.

I hope you won't need the SS check and are rolling in money. Even if you are I do not believe that you will be so wealthy that you will not sign up for it to get that check

 

[ruffdog]

I hope the best for BFJ as I see things are tough now a days. Keep fighting bro:drink:

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Yea, that time of year again. i signed up for next years plan. Mine went up 50%.

There's a wide difference in plans, you really have to compare.

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

Yea, that time of year again. i signed up for next years plan. Mine went up 50%.

There's a wide difference in plans, you really have to compare.

I haven’t even seen 2019s plans yet, I hope it doesn’t jump 50% or I just might not take it.

After this thread I’ll prob sign back up for insurance, would defeat the whole purpose if I ended up having to sell my house and stuff over a medical bill.

 

[MossRoad]

IF, is the key word there.

I can say the same thing about people saving for retirement, I have to pay social security and taxes to cover the folks who didn稚 plan for retirement and find themselves at the age for retirement but no money saved up.

I will pay Society way more then I will take, don稚 worry about that. I have already paid into social security since the age of 17, 11 years now, I have always paid my taxes on time and have always been employed, I have another 30-40 years to pay into social security. When I知 that age I plan to be financially independent, I won稚 need SS.

You can't pick and choose which morals you want to follow. You're either a good guy or a weasel. No wiggle room there.

All morals aside, you're taking a huge risk by going without health care insurance so you can afford rental property to try and retire early.

Why in the world are you coming on a public forum and looking for affirmation on this issue? Not one person has sided with you on this decision. THAT should tell you something. It's like polling the audience in "are you smarter than a 5th grader" and 90% of the audience tells you the answer is X, so you choose Y and lose.


If it makes you feel any better, my wife and I both make average wages. We've been debt free since 1995, when I was 34. We've raise two children, afforded great day care, private school K-12, and sent them through 4 years of college debt free. We've paid off two houses, 20 acres of land, a dozen cars, taken trips all over the country, sent wife and kids to Europe, south America.... we want for nothing on average wages. We have enough in investments to retire today at age 57 and never work another day in our lives if we want to. And we've always had health care insurance.

Health insurance has helped us with the following over the years, all unexpected, with the exception of the babies, we tried for those....

Babies, knocking myself out at work, female problems, male problems, fertility problems, mental health issues, sports injuries, back issues, physical therapy many times, foot issues, vision issues, opthamolic migrains, norovirus, rabies, infections, urinary tract issues, weird growths, moles and tumors.... the list goes on and on.

That crap happens to everyone sooner than later. Most of that happened before I was 35 years old. It would have been hundreds of thousands of dollars had it not been for health insurance.

You'd be making a poor decision going without health care insurance because the odds are, you will need it and the bills will come out more than the premiums over the long run. It's all about the long run.

Good luck to you young man.

401k loans should always be the last choice. Try not to make a habit out of it. Every time you take a loan out against a 401k, you're shorting yourself on gains that could have been made on that money, and increasing the time you'll have to work to get the amount you need to retire. Also, if you have an outstanding loan against a 401k and you lose your job or change jobs, you have to repay that loan immediately or pay the penalty and taxes for early withdrawal, so only do that as the very last choice.